Senior Strategic Finance Associate

Summary

Join Earnest as a Senior Strategic Finance Associate and contribute to our mission of making higher education more accessible and affordable. You will work closely with various teams to develop and maintain budgets and forecasts, focusing on marketing efficiency and aligning with strategic objectives. This role involves creating financial models, analyzing data, and presenting findings to executive leadership. You will also play a key role in supporting the 5-year strategic plan and annual budget. The ideal candidate possesses a finance or business degree, 3+ years of relevant experience, and strong analytical skills. Earnest offers a competitive salary and benefits package, including health insurance, retirement plan, paid time off, and a remote work option.

Requirements

• Degree in Finance, Business or a related field
• 3+ years of experience in strategic finance, corporate FP&A
• High proficiency with Excel, Google Sheets, PowerPoint, and Financial ERP systems
• Experience working with C-suite level leadership (direct reporting, presentations, etc.) and comfortable speaking in large groups
• Experience building dynamic financial models and experience working with large data sets to disseminate trend analysis for forecasting / manipulating data to tell a story with supporting evidence
• Ability to build strong relationships of trust & influence, ability to lead work initiatives with cross-functional coordination with stakeholders
• Willingness to travel to the Oakland office monthly to collaborate with other Earnies

Responsibilities

• Work closely with other Finance staff as well as General Managers, Marketing team, and Operations team to develop budgets and forecasts and maintain those forecasts
• Concentrate on marketing drivers including channel efficiency, funnel conversion, and campaign performance to identify opportunities for more efficient spending. Support reporting and analysis needs to highlight operational performance and measure alignment with strategic objectives
• Responsible for maintaining 5-year strategic plan forecast, and annual budget alongside current-year monthly forecast for the Earnest business unit
• Make recommendations and express financial significance for both leveraging opportunities or mitigating risks
• Measure new business opportunities, financial outcomes for various financing vehicles, and prepare materials for Executive meetings, Board of Director meetings, and ad hoc requests from executive management
• Support the production, maintenance, and development of models and processes performed for the financial planning, analysis, and forecasting of Earnest LLC and Navient Corporation
• Serve as departmental CFO to conduct monthly reviews with Marketing and Operations group leaders to bring financial insights. Help them understand monthly expense details, complete monthly forecasts, identify savings opportunities, and justify higher expense needs

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Marketing is a huge plus. This includes return on investment (ROI) and Lifetime Value (LTV) of various marketing channels and campaigns, calculation of Cost per Acquisition (CPA), and spend forecast based on different scenarios
• Investment banking, management consulting and private equity experience are a plus
• Experience and/or knowledge of the lending industry, amortization tables, loan loss models, securitization structures, warehouse financing facilities and risk-based pricing

Benefits

• Health, Dental, & Vision benefits plus savings plans
• Mac computers + work-from-home stipend to set up your home office
• Monthly internet and phone reimbursement
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Restricted Stock Units (RSUs)
• 401(k) plan to help you save for retirement plus a company match
• Robust tuition reimbursement program
• $1,000 travel perk on each Earnie-versary to anywhere in the world
• Competitive days of annual PTO
• Competitive parental leave